ADVANCEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH OF SELF-HELP GROUPS

The vision of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, “India to become super power by 2020”, could become a reality, if the nation could generate more of job providers than job seekers.  Entrepreneurship is the catalytic agent for the economic development of a nation. This development should happen at the grass root level of the economy, resulting in an inclusive growth of India. Indian women at the bottom of the pyramid have been put on this trajectory development through the concept of Self-Help Groups (SHGs). NABARD’s SHG bank linkage programme is a tremendous step to achieve financial inclusion of hitherto left out women of our nation. Many innovative projects are being implemented by NABARD as an investment for posterity. At the core of these innovations is a desire to improve the outreach and sustainability of the SHG bank linkage programme. This paper studies the extent of reach or awareness of NABARDs initiatives among SHGs at Madavaram, a suburb in North Chennai. It is found that, it would become imperative in the near future for SHG women to adopt basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to process their transactions. Unless they get into the main stream of ICT innovation in the banking services, their sustainable growth cannot be achieved.